Strategies For Women Research Articles

The Scylla State. A gendered understanding of the experiences of marginalised women in the United Kingdom.

Since the formation of the 2012 Coalition government, the UK has been subject to 12 years of neoliberal policy enacted with ferocity and vigour. This has comprised austerity measures including the retrenchment of welfare via the reshaping of the welfare state and public services according to business practices, ideals of individual responsibilisation and overwhelmingly, the notion of reducing the state's ideological and fiscal responsibility for equity and social welfare. The neoliberal state has been conceptualised by Loic Wacquant as a Centaur, boasting a liberal head, yet one atop an authoritarian body whose focus isthe designated 'underclasses', the socially and economically non-compliant. The Centaur takes away with one hand while ruling punitively with the other, specifically via 'prisonfare' and 'workfare' to compel submission to precarious and sub-par employment. Although compelling, the Centaur State is justifiably critiqued for its blindness to gender and focus upon the manifestation of neoliberalism in the States. By exploring the stories of 23 women in the UK with histories of survival sex working and problematic drug use, a distinct gendered alternative reality emerges of the operation and machinations of the neoliberal state. Rather than a Centaur, marginalised women experience the Scylla State, a covert, hydra-headed beast motivated by neo-Victorian ideals of 'womanfare'. The operations of the Scylla State are unpredictable, replicate traumatising interpersonal experiences and variously involve surveillance, coercion, conditionality and the responsibilisation of victimhood to justify increasingly punitive responses to women's survival strategies in the face of increasing trauma and deprivation.

Negotiating Gender and Religion: Comparative Perspectives from Judaism and Islam

Abstract: Women in Orthodox Judaism and mainstream Islam are discriminated against in Muslim and Jewish family law; subjected to rulings elaborated by men regarding female purity and reproductive rights; segregated in the spaces of synagogues and mosques; and excluded from advanced study, interpretation of religious law ( fiqh and halakha ), and spiritual leadership. Gender-nonconforming believers have no place, either. Nonetheless, since the mid-twentieth century, Jewish and Muslim women as well as sexual minorities have been making claims for gender justice, attempting to change from within these conservative religions. The article shows convergences and divergences in women's strategies to undermine male hegemony on religious authority in both faiths. If numerous works have dealt with female agency and resistance to patriarchy in each tradition, comparative studies are still lacking, and this article suggests areas in family law, ritual purity, and procreation to further feminist and queer interreligious research.

Negotiating Gender and Religion: Comparative Perspectives from Judaism and Islam

Abstract: Women in Orthodox Judaism and mainstream Islam are discriminated against in Muslim and Jewish family law; subjected to rulings elaborated by men regarding female purity and reproductive rights; segregated in the spaces of synagogues and mosques; and excluded from advanced study, interpretation of religious law ( fiqh and halakha ), and spiritual leadership. Gender-nonconforming believers have no place, either. Nonetheless, since the mid-twentieth century, Jewish and Muslim women as well as sexual minorities have been making claims for gender justice, attempting to change from within these conservative religions. The article shows convergences and divergences in women's strategies to undermine male hegemony on religious authority in both faiths. If numerous works have dealt with female agency and resistance to patriarchy in each tradition, comparative studies are still lacking, and this article suggests areas in family law, ritual purity, and procreation to further feminist and queer interreligious research.

Differences in Chinese Women's Understanding of Feminism: The Influence of Socioeconomic Status, Family and Education (Take Henan Province as an Example)

Although gender equality is a fundamental policy in China. However, gender inequality is still prevalent in daily life and work where women always suffer from gender discrimination. With the rapid development of the Internet in recent years, the issue of gender inequality has received more attention and has been more widely discussed. In order to safeguard the equal rights of Chinese women, feminists have consciously made their voices heard through the Internet and other channels. However, due to the fact that Chinese women's individual life circumstances are clearly differentiated and differently influenced by their own socio-economic status, family environment and education, it is necessary to understand the extent of Chinese women's recognition of feminism. This study will target women in H province and collect data through online questionnaires and interviews, including socioeconomic status, family background, education level, and understanding of feminism. This article uses a Likert scale for the research, Chi-square test, t-test and multiple regression analysis to analyze the quantitative data to determine the influence of SES, family and education on feminist awareness awakening among women in H region. As the third largest province in China in terms of resident population and the largest province in terms of household registration, the development potential of women in H region is evident to all. This study will systematically investigate H region women in H region understanding of feminism and explore the factors that influence Chinese women to have different levels of recognition of feminism, which can help unite women in their struggle to protect women's common rights. The study will improve our understanding of women's affirmative action and suggest more effective guidelines for women's affirmative action strategies.

Challenges and Political Communication Strategies to Win Elections: Ethnographic Studies on Women DPD RI Members

Women's political participation faces various societal challenges, such as patriarchal culture and the politicians' internal challenges. Even though there is a minimum quota of 30% women's representation, many regions cannot meet this quota. The members of Indonesian senates (after this referred to as DPD RI) from South Sumatra Province are an exception. All four members are women. Therefore, there is an opportunity to design women's political communication to win elections from the examples provided by DPD RI South Sumatra Province members. This research aims to understand the challenges women politicians face, design women's political communication strategies to win elections and formulate women's political communication models in winning the election for DPD RI members. The research method was conducted through interviews with women DPD RI members who won elections in South Sumatra Province, Indonesia. Researchers investigated the challenges faced by these winners and how they were able to overcome them. The challenges found included physical challenges, external challenges from the community, and internal challenges from DPD RI members. At the same time, the strategies used were the target, symbol, communication, and media strategies. This research identifies many political communication strategies that broaden the theoretical framework. Included in the strategies proposed are symbolic interaction-based communication and stereotype-based strategies. Both types of planning increase political confidence and voting decisions if adequately implemented, accompanied by steps to overcome the obstacles that impede women's political participation.

STRATEGI PEMBERDAYAAN PEREMPUAN MELALUI KELOMPOK WANITA NELAYAN FATIMAH AZZARAH KOTA MAKASSAR

This study aims to explore women's empowerment strategies and inhibiting factors as well as ways to overcome all inhibiting factors. Methodologically, this research is a descriptive-qualitative type with Husserl's phenomenological approach. Data collection includes non-structural interviews with participatory observation and non-intervention strategies, documentation is then analyzed using data reduction techniques, data presentation, interpretation, drawing conclusions. The results of the study show (1) the strategy of empowering the Fatimah Azzarah fishing women's group (KWN) is by instilling awareness of their roles and identities that are able to contribute to the economy of their families and after this awareness is formed, the fishing women's groups (KWN) are given knowledge and training in managing marine products to be able to do business and compete in the food industry. (2) The inhibiting factor in empowering women from the Fatimah Azzarah fishermen women's group is that there is still an unequal distribution of fishing gear for husbands and wives of the Fatimah Azzarah fishermen women's group (KWN) so that it has an impact on the economic income of the family and with it the Fatimah fishermen women's group (KWN). Azzarah overcomes this by promoting their processed products in social media space and also the inhibiting factor is the lack of community participation in empowering women, the Fatimah Azzarah fishing women's group (KWN) overcomes them by developing informal advocacy programs and paralegal work, including assistance for victims of violence in households, girls' schools and schools are confident that the community will participate in this empowerment which does not only focus on the economic benefits of the Fatimah Azzara fishermen women's group (KWN) but covers the community at a macro level.

WOMEN'S ACADEMIC STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE SELF AND SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT IN VIEW OF CONTEMPORARY CHANGES

This paper offers a qualitative analysis of women's academic strategies to achieve Self and social adjustment in view of contemporary changes. In our study, we attempted to overlook common studies’ interpretations when analysing women's issues, where we objectively investigate the potential that is connected to the perceptions and representations of contemporary women. Besides, the extent to which the values of modernity and progress are present to achieve greatly self- and social adjustment, that is, we seek to highlight the effective values thanks to which women were able to proceed in the path of civilizational development and keep pace with the changes and complexities of modern life, and the coping strategies required to dissolve the contradictions that academic women live with

Hedges as A Conversational Strategy in Women’s Gossip in The Bold Type Season 1

This study aims to explore the functions of hedges employed in women’s gossip by all female characters in The Bold Type Season 1. This study applied Coates' (1996) classifications of hedges functions combined with two other functions proposed by Rabab’ah and Rumman (2015) to investigate the hedges function. The researchers employed a descriptive-qualitative method and collected the data by highlighting the transcript of the series to identify the conversations categorized as women’s gossip. The data were then analyzed in several steps; identifying by giving codes, classifying, interpreting or discussing, and making a conclusion. The study revealed that all four hedges’ functions by Coates and two functions by Rabab’ah and Rumman are found in female characters’ utterances in their gossip. Based on the study’s result, using hedges as a conversational strategy in female characters’ utterances smoothens their conversation during gossip. It can facilitate them to convey precise ideas when they exchange information and prevent them from delivering exaggerated information during gossip. It also helps them maintain solidarity and friendship between the participants, which is the overall function of female gossip. To conclude, hedges or hedging can be an influential conversational strategy in women’s gossip.

An Experiment Using a Sexual Strategies Explanation to Alleviate Internalized Homophobia Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in China.

Some men who have sex with men (MSM) having more casual sex and sexual partners is interpreted to be a sign of mental disorder and used to justify negative attitudes toward them by some. MSM may internalize this attitude causing internalized homophobia (IH). According to the sexual strategies theory, MSM having more casual sex is the result of differences between men's and women's sexual strategies and is unrelated to sexual orientation. We investigated whether this explanation would reduce IH and improve mental health in MSM. We recruited 255 Chinese MSM online using Wenjuanxing, Douban, Weibo, Tieba, and Blued and divided them using simple randomization into an experimental group (n = 77; sexual strategies explanation provided), an active control group (n = 99; minority stress explanation provided), and a control group (n = 79; no intervention) with pretest (N = 255); a 1 week post-test (n = 195); and a 1 month follow-up test (n = 170) of outcome measures. IH, mental distress (MD), sort-term mating orientation, and risky sexual behaviors were measured online. The data were analyzed by SPSS 28. IH was associated with MD while being married was associated with IH and sexual contact with women with both more IH and MD as were not being masculine and self-identifying as straight. The sexual strategies explanation reduced IH related to pathologizing sexual behaviors and high-risk sexual behaviors while the minority stress explanation reduced MD. Providing a sexual strategies explanation may be used to de-stigmatize casual sex among MSM.

Micro-Practices of Domestic Living

Abstract This article presents case studies of older women's survival strategies in domestic settings in the expensive city of Munich, based on ethnographic material from two research projects on women's precarious retirement and the use of technology in old age. The self-care routines developed by the women over time assemble mental strategies and attitudes, bodily practices and socio-material techniques integrated into a specific spatial setting. These routines help them adapt to their physical impairments under multiply precarious circumstances: the pensioners portrayed have limited retirement funds, and thus, cannot afford household assistance or technical aids or even moving to another flat or into assisted living. Delving into private life-worlds and approaching women's perspectives and vulnerable agency, provides fresh insights into the field of private dwellings, often neglected in studies on old age.

Investigation of coping behaviors and premenstrual syndrome among university students.

This study aims to examine premenstrual syndrome (PMS) in university students and their coping behaviors. 452 female students were included in this descriptive and correlational study. The data were collected using a descriptive information form, the Premenstrual Syndrome Scale (PMSS), and the Premenstrual Change Coping Inventory (PMS-Cope). PMS symptoms were found in 80.5% of students. Seeking positive affect-inducing activities to cope with PMS was found to be a significant predictor of reducing the severity of PMS (β =-0.265, p < .001). In coping with PMS, it is necessary to consider the perceptions of taking medication, seeking social support, or seeking positive affect-inducing activities as a coping method to determine the social and cultural beliefs of university students and control PMS. PMS is a significant health problem and raising awareness of the issue alone may not be enough. It should also be noted that the severity of PMS can vary markedly between ethnic groups, and women's strategies for coping with symptoms and their effectiveness may differ between cultures. It is pivotal to develop strategies for university students to cope with PMS and provide personalized care.

Blastocyst Transplantation Strategies in Women of Different Ages

(1) Background: Single blastocyst transfers (SBT) and double blastocyst transfers (DBT) are widely used in clinical practice. The objective of this study was to investigate the application of these two strategies in women of different ages. (2) Methods: Analysis was carried out on 5477 frozen embryo transfer cycles of women in different ages. All the cycles were divided into three groups according to the age of the included women: <35, 35-39, and >39. The live birth rate (LBR) and multiple birth rate (MBR) between the SBT and DBT among these groups, respectively, were compared. (3) Results: In the women < 35 group, the LBR was similar in SBT and DBT, but the MBR was higher in DBT than SBT. In women 35-39, with >10 oocytes retrieved, the MBR in DBT was significantly higher than SBT, but there was no significant difference in LBR between the two groups; with ≤10 oocytes retrieved, the LBR in DBT were significantly higher than SBT, but the MBT was not significantly different between the two groups. In women > 39, the LBR and MBR were lower in the SBT than DBT, but the differences were not statistically significant. (4) Conclusions: Selective SET is appropriate for most young women, whereas older women are advised to make individualized choices based on the number of oocytes retrieved and blastocyst quality.

Analysis of Women Traders’ Approaches to Resilience During the Outbreaks of Covid 19

Gender disparities still exist in the business world, yet things are slowly starting to change. Other than that, women have historically faced greater obstacles than men when it comes to achieving success in the business world. Women are becoming leaders in industries and achieving top positions in companies. This paper describes the result of need analysis of women's capacity development strategy among the actors of the community-based creative economy in tourism business. This qualitative approach used observation, interviews with focused group discussion activities, and document analysis as a method to collect data. It was carried out involving 25 women creative economy actors as informants. Business pattern dynamization emerged as one of the strategies to cope with socio-economic issues due to the pandemic, which was done by developing businesses in an agricultural field, fulfilling household needs, online ready-made garments, and opening a business at the beach. The community serves as a social capital that helps creative economy actors in this study overcome hindrances, such as high-interest loans, price war, and unhealthy competition. Hence, these women embody the qualities of resilience, determination, and grit. They prove that with hard work and dedication, anything is possible.

The Capital of Free Women: Race, Legitimacy, and Liberty in Colonial Mexico

The Capital of Free Women: Race, Legitimacy, and Liberty in Colonial Mexico

Coping Strategies in Women and Children Living with Domestic Violence: Staying Alive.

Children exposed to domestic violence are at risk of adverse short- and long-term psychosocial effects and of being abused themselves. However, mothers and children face systemic gaps when seeking safety from domestic violence services and police. Safety planning typically focuses on women, overlooking their multiple social identities and excluding their children. We explored safety strategies used by mothers and children coping together with severe domestic violence. Interviews with 30 mothers who experienced severe or potentially life-threatening domestic violence and 5 adults who experienced domestic violence in childhood were qualitatively analyzed using thematic analysis, revealing five major themes: ongoing communication, appeasing the abuser, soothing activities, exposure reduction, and fostering independence. Interpreting participants' experiences in terms of the mother-child dyad, we found that mothers and their children worked together to reassure each other, keep each other safe, and make plans to leave their abuser. Safety planning for the mother-child dyad could build on children's existing coping strategies and recognize and support children's desire to protect their mother and themselves effectively and safely according to their developmental stage.

The Effectiveness of Positive-Focused Mindfulness Therapy on Mental Well-being, Quality of Life, and Stress Coping Strategies in Women with Bipolar Disorder

Objective: The primary aim of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of positive-focused mindfulness therapy on mental well-being, quality of life, and stress coping strategies in women with bipolar disorder in Tehran. Methods and Materials: This research was conducted as a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test, and a control group. The study population included all women with bipolar disorder who visited Razi Hospital. Initially, individuals who had a record at these centers or were referred by specialists were contacted for registration, and 30 participants who met the study criteria were selected. The sample was randomly divided into two groups: experimental and control, and the study was conducted on them. The positive-focused mindfulness therapy consisted of 12 sessions of 90 minutes each, based on the mindfulness training protocol. Meanwhile, the control group received no training. The instruments used in this study included the 26-item Quality of Life Questionnaire (1996), the 45-item Mental Well-being Questionnaire by Keyes and Magyar-Moe (2003), and the 18-item Life Stress Questionnaire (1993). Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. Findings: The results showed significant differences in the scores of quality of life, mental well-being, and stress between pre-tests and post-tests of the experimental group compared to the control group (P&lt;0.01). Conclusion: The findings indicate that positive-focused mindfulness therapy improves the quality of life, mental well-being, and stress in women with bipolar disorder. Therefore, alongside other therapeutic methods, positive-focused mindfulness therapy can be effective in improving psychological symptoms in women with bipolar disorder.

Effectiveness of Positive-Focused Mindfulness Therapy on Mental Well-being, Quality of Life, and Stress Coping Strategies in Women with Bipolar Disorder

The primary objective of the current research was to determine the effectiveness of positive-focused mindfulness therapy on mental well-being, quality of life, and stress coping strategies in women diagnosed with bipolar disorder in Kashan city. This study was conducted as a quasi-experimental research with pre-test, post-test alongside a control group, and the research population included all women diagnosed with bipolar disorder attending psychiatric centers in Kashan. Initially, registration was carried out by contacting individuals who had records in these centers or were referred by specialists, and 30 of them, who met the study criteria, were selected. The sample was randomly divided into experimental and control groups, and the study was conducted on them. The positive-focused mindfulness therapy consisted of 12 sessions of 90 minutes of mindfulness training derived from the protocol by Tabatabai Nejad et al. (2018). Meanwhile, the control group did not receive any form of training. This research was concluded in March 2023. The instruments used in this study included the 26-item Quality of Life questionnaire (1996), the 45-item Mental Well-being questionnaire by Keyes and Magyar-Moe (2003), and the 18-item Life Stress questionnaire (1993). Variance analysis was employed to test the hypotheses in this study. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group in comparison to the control group in terms of quality of life, mental well-being, and stress coping strategies (P&lt;0.01). The findings from this research indicate the impact of positive-focused mindfulness therapy in improving the quality of life, mental well-being, and stress in women with bipolar disorder. Therefore, positive-focused mindfulness therapy, alongside other therapeutic methods, can be effective in improving the psychological symptoms of women with bipolar disorder.

Identification of PEKKA Characteristics for the Women Empowerment Strategy in Sumedang Regency

Gender income disparity is one of the challenges in realizing community welfare in the SumedangRegency. PEKKA worker is one of the vulnerable objects that need to be improved by the government ofSumedang Regency. This study aims to identify the individual characteristics of PEKKA to determine goalsand priorities for women's empowerment strategies. This study’s method is quantitative research in theform of a description with numbers or numerals (statistics). Reference studies that corroborate theanalysis complement this study's method. The analysis describes the characteristics of female heads ofhousehold in Sumedang Regency. The results showed that PEKKA in Sumedang Regency dominates bymiddle-aged and older women. Their level of education and competence is low, so they commonly workin the informal sector as unassisted entrepreneurs and in the formal sector as laborers. Thesecharacteristics are factors that cause their common welfare. Therefore, the PEKKA EmpowermentProgram in Sumedang Regency needs to involve other regional government affairs, namely Education,Health, Social, Labor, Communication and Information, Cooperatives, Small and Medium Enterprises,Agriculture, and Fisheries. Through this strategy, the PEKKA Empowerment Program can be right on targetto encourage the realization of the welfare of the people of Sumedang Regency.

Shodagor women cooperate across domains of work and childcare to solve an adaptive problem.

Across human societies, women's economic production and their contributions to childcare are critical in supporting reproductive fitness for themselves, their spouses and children. Yet, the necessity of performing both work and childcare tasks presents women with an adaptive problem in which they must determine how best to allocate their time and energy between these tasks. Women often use cooperative relationships with alloparents to solve this problem, but whether or not women cooperate across different domains (e.g. work and childcare) to access alloparents remains relatively under-explored. Using social network data collected with Shodagor households in Bangladesh, we show that women who need childcare help in order to work draw on cooperative work partners as potential alloparents, and that all women rely heavily on kin, but not reciprocal cooperation for childcare help. These results indicate that Shodagor women strategize to create work and childcare relationships in ways that help solve the adaptive problem they face. We discuss the implications of our results and the example provided by Shodagor women for a broader understanding of women's cooperative relationships, including the importance of socio-ecological circumstances and gendered divisions of labour in shaping women's cooperative strategies. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives'.

The Formation of "Half the Sky" of Catholicism in the Ming-Qing Dynasties and Its Religious Space: Take Candida Xu as Center

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Catholicism spread from foreign countries to China. Missionaries conformed to women’s role of "Social Marginality" at that time and adopted adaptive women's group missionary strategy, which provided suitable soil and favorable conditions for the formation of "Half the Sky" phenomenon of female believers. With further investigation, it is found that female believers are the main basis for the prosperity and sustainable development of the "Half the Sky" phenomenon, which is closely related to the special religious space that ancient women had under the positioning of "Social Marginality". Among the female believers in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the most exemplary character is "Female Pillar" Candida Xu, who is well-known in both China and the West. Her historical records are the most comprehensive and detailed, making up for the collective "Aphasia" of female believers in the Ming and Qing Dynasties to a certain extent. Candida Xu made full use of her different kind of free religious activity space, built a women's religious network with herself as the axis, and promoted the establishment of a sizable nursery for girls, which became a key part and an important support of "Half the Sky", and finally made outstanding contributions to the formation of "Half the Sky" of Catholicism in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and the expansion of its religious space.